Dutch gov't won't apologize for slavery on commemoration day: report

The Cabinet will not apologize for the Netherlands' history of slavery on Friday, the annual commemoration of the abolition of slavery. The Rutte IV Cabinet is still considering this sensitive subject, sources close to the government told NOS. They added that they're not ruling out an apology in the long run.

The Cabinet twice discussed apologies to the descendants of enslaved people from Suriname and the Caribbean during Council of Ministers meetings this month, the sources said. But they first want to have a "substantive debate" with those involved about the contemporary consequences of slavery.

Friday, July 1, is Keti Koti in the Nehtelrands. It commemorates the history of slavery and celebrates its abolition in Suriname and the former Dutch Antilles on July 1, 1863. Though some “freed” people were still forced to work on plantations in Suriname until a decade later. Activists have been pushing to make Keti Koti, which means “broken chains” in Sranan Tongo, a national day of commemoration and a public holiday in the Netherlands.

The cities of Amsterdam, Rotterdam, and Utrecht have already apologized for the role their municipalities played in enslaving people. But as of yet, the Cabinet hasn't seemed eager to follow suit. Over the past years, Prime Minister Mark Rutte called it a complicated topic, "a dilemma," and a personal "quest" because it happened so long ago. D66 Minister Rob Jetten and ChristenUnie leader Gert-Jan Segers are for apologizing, stressing that the suffering of enslaved people still affects their descendants in the form of discrimination and racism. Apologies can help with reconciliation, they believe.